I, too, am glad to hear this friendly reminder. I work very closely with the students at my school who have an interest in Theatre Marketing - and we send show posters through the IU mail to the other public schools in our county on a regular basis. It amazes me how blatant some of the design choices are to break the rules!
Neighboring schools have put their own students' names above the title in large letters ("West Side Story ... starring... these kids") and buried Stephen Sondheim's name in the fine print at the bottom... They also call their theatre program the "Thespian Society" even though they have never had an officially chartered troupe.
I have had several students do Theatre Marketing IE's over the years - and we've had lots of conversations about what can and cannot be done. They get frustrated when they have to re-think their design for spacing issues... but when they are reviewed positively by the adjudicators for following the rules, they are grateful. We have to uphold the standard now - and legally, uphold the licensing contract for each production. Glad to know there are others who agree!
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Melissa Mintzer
Willow Street PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-08-2019 08:05
From: Bruce Taws
Subject: Crediting the author(s) in your publicity
I am glad to hear this from a playwright, especially one of my favorites, but this is a problem I as a director see too often in posters published on the internet and often around town. The contract is clear, and I believe many are guilty of "selective reading" and not following through with this important step, especially when the contracts can be up to ten pages or more in length. I know I did this at least once when I first started out thirty years ago. It took a colleague of mine to point this out as you did. Well put and very graciously, I might add.
Bruce Taws
Mosley Drama
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Original Message------
I was scrolling through my Instagram feed this morning, and a poster about a school's upcoming production of a well-known musical caught my eye. "Who wrote that show again?" I wondered. The poster should have told me, but alas, there was no mention of the authors at all. I wish I could say that's the only poster I've seen on my Instagram feed that was guilty of this, but sadly it's not...
Similarly, I've recently been doing a guest artist visit to teach playwriting at a local school. The walls are lined with beautiful posters, but in most (all?) of them, while the titles of the shows are prominently displayed, the names of the people who created them are nowhere to be found.
As you're designing those posters, folks, a gentle reminder that in most cases, there is a contractual obligation to credit the authors (usually in a font size that is at least 50% of the size of the title and immediately following it) in any publicity you release (i.e. posters/flyers, programs, advertising). Credit is part of a playwright's compensation, and it's important that the next generation of artists learn this by example. Hopefully you're already doing this. Thank you.
Cheers,
Jonathan
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Jonathan Dorf
Playwright/ Co-founder of YouthPLAYS/ Co-chair of The Alliance Of Los Angeles Playwrights
Los Angeles CA
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